It’s time to wrap up the year, but before we do, we’re sounding off our Top 10 Blogs of 2017! Don’t miss these must-reads for entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, small business, and home-based business owners!

It’s the last working day of 2017, so it’s a great time to take a look back and reflect at...

Happy first day of December! It’s December and the end of the year is in full-swing. Don’t go into the holiday travel season without the December Book-of-the-Month: Business Adventures by John Brooks.

Female celebrities are breaking the stereotypes of Hollywood and diving into the world of business. Check out how these women are using their fame, fortune, and power to start their own companies. From media production to makeup, these Top Female Celebrity Business Owners are doing it all!

Hopefully, you’re already among the unprecedented number of business opportunity and other small business owners who actively participated in last year’s Small Business Saturday® initiative. If not, then you don’t want to miss the boat this year, that’s for sure. Either way, NOW is the time to get started with your planning efforts—that is, if you haven’t already.

Small Business Saturday® is once again slated to take place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and this year that date is November 30. Promising to be better than ever, the 2013 effort will once again focus the attention of the national media and ultimately consumers on the incredible contribution America’s small businesses make to its economic stability and overall growth, as well as the critical need to support them.

With so much attention being paid now that the whole concept of "shopping small" is really catching on, small business owners who don’t make the effort to participate may be missing out on a valuable business opportunity. Fortunately, there are now a number of online resources available FREE of charge to help you make the most of it, starting now!Need marketing materials to help attract customers on the big day? Just one quick click here on the Small Business Saturday® website, and you’ll have access to everything you need to get started from printable and customizable signage and sample social media posts and emails to online banners and Shop Small® logos, as well as firsthand accounts of how other small business owners have used resources just like these successfully in years past.

Plus, if you are a small business merchant who accepts American Express, you’ll want to make certain you’re included on this year’s Shop Small® Map. It’s just one more way that potential customers who want to support the Shop Small® Movement can make a point to find you this year.

Created in 2010 by American Express as a means of ensuring small businesses also benefit from what has long been deemed the “biggest shopping weekend” annually—especially for larger retailers and online merchants—Small Business Saturday® exceeded expectations last year, generating an estimated $5.5 billion in small-business consumer spending. But perhaps more importantly, awareness about the event seems to be growing exponentially, largely as a result of both social and mainstream media attention, with a jump from 34 percent to 67 percent in consumer awareness in the two-week period leading up to last year’s effort.

Given that kind of precedent and the fact that there are so many indicators that the U.S. economy is improving, this year’s Small Business Saturday® could very well be a record-setting event. And it starts with you!

To learn more about and get started planning for Small Business Saturday® 2013, click here to download your FREE marketing tools and access other valuable resources now!

I had the pleasure of chatting with Shawn Pigg, CEO of Hotels Etc. for BusinessOpportunity.com's Podcast series that will be released very soon on our new Digital Platform. Here is the transcript from that call for our regular RSS feed subscribers who get all of our posts first.